Past books

Te Papa Press titles that are now out of print. Copies may still be available at some retailers – check individual pages for more details.

100 Amazing Tales from Aotearoa

As part of the First World War I Centenary (2014–18), Te Papa has taken on the task of identifying these men and the people photographed with them. We want to discover what happened to them, and how their lives and the lives of their descendants were affected by the war.

100 Natural History Treasures of Te Papa

An insider’s guide to the natural treasures of New Zealand’s national museum.

An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes

An indispensable guide to hebes – among New Zealand’s best known native plants. Finalist in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007 – Reference & Anthology.

Art at Te Papa

Art at Te Papa, a major book from Te Papa Press showcasing the best of New Zealand’s national art collection, from the iconic to the little-known.

Audrey Eagle Botanical Art Stationery

A stunning range of personal notebooks and boxed cards, featuring a popular selection of Audrey Eagle’s celebrated botanical artwork of New Zealand flora. This beautifully produced range of products accompanies Te Papa Press’s new The Essential Audrey Eagle: Botanical Art of New Zealand.

Awesome Forces: The Natural Hazards that Threaten New Zealand

Massively updated, the new edition of Te Papa Press’s bestselling introduction to New Zealand’s natural hazards and disasters is more relevant than ever.

Aztecs: Conquest and Glory

Prophecy, empire, and sacrifice – enter the dramatic world of the Aztecs!

The Back of the Painting

Behind the scenes with the experts on famous paintings

Berry Boys: Portraits of First World War Soldiers and Families

A powerful book of portraits offering an extraordinary, evocative snapshot of New Zealanders facing the First World War.

Book of New Zealand Words

This elegant, expert, and utterly up-to-date book contains over 1,500 samples from New Zealand's distinctive vocabulary.

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand Stationery

A lavish range of stationery featuring a selection of all-new reproductions of JG Keulemans’ classic artworks of New Zealand native birds.

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Work of JG Keulemans

A complete, all-new edition of the classic 19th century ornithological paintings of John Gerrard Keulemans for Walter Buller’s iconic A History of the Birds of New Zealand, featuring fresh reproductions of the original watercolour paintings

Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand

Greatly revised and expanded, the latest edition of this highly respected guide is the must-have reference for birds in the New Zealand region.

The Cook Voyages Encounters: The Cook Voyages Collections of Te Papa

A comprehensive guide to the objects associated with the voyages of James Cook held at New Zealand's National Museum

The Curioseum: Collected Stories of the Odd and Marvellous

A truly original compendium of stories and poems for 8–12 year olds, by New Zealand's best children's authors and with whimsical illustrations from award-winning Sarah Laing.

Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand

Every known native New Zealand tree and shrub – in colour and life size. Winner of the Montana Medal for Non-fiction 2007 and winner of the Illustrative section of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007.

Book cover for Fishing Methods and Devices of the Maori

Elsdon Best titles

Now back in print for the first time in 20 years. Elsdon Best (1856–1931) was New Zealand’s foremost ethnographer of Māori social life and customs. Today, his work remains a unique and valuable record of Māori tradition.

The Essential Audrey Eagle: Botanical Art of New Zealand

The Essential Audrey Eagle: Botanical Art of New Zealand offers botanists, gardeners, and art lovers Audrey Eagle’s exquisite botanical artworks – in a compact, portable format.

Extinct Birds of New Zealand

A richly illustrated view into the world of New Zealand’s lost birds. Finalist in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007 – Environment.

The Fishes of New Zealand

The most detailed reference to the fishes of New Zealand ever published – definitive and completely illustrated.

Game Masters

An inside look at the art of the world's biggest entertainment and creative industry.

The Genius of Bugs Activity Book

Test your genius in these awesome bug activities.

The Genius of Bugs

They may be small, they may be creepy, but bugs have super-sized powers!

High Country New Zealand: The Land, the People, the Seasons

Majestically beautiful, remote and rugged, the high country of New Zealand is central to the country’s history and identity. This visually stunning book, High Country New Zealand, documents and celebrates the land, its people, and their way of life through the changing seasons.

Holding on to Home: New Zealand Stories and Objects of the First World War

A powerfully human and compelling illustrated history of New Zealand’s war experience.

Icons Ngā Taonga

A significant and bold selection from the collections of New Zealand’s national museum. Beautifully illustrated with engaging essays and commentary, both in English and Māori.

Icons series

These five stylish books introduce fascinating objects from Te Papa’s art, history, natural history, Pacific and Māori collections.

Identification of Seabirds of the Southern Ocean

The definitive guide to identifying seabirds in the oceans around New Zealand.

Judy Darragh: So...You Made It?

Judy Darragh: So…You Made It? profiles the recent work and ongoing career of artist 'Queen of Kitsch' Judy Darragh.

Ko Rongowhakaata: The Story of Light and Shadow

Showcasing more than 60 Rongowhakaata taonga, and through the English and te reo Māori text focuses on key threads including innovation and kaitiekitanga (sustainable processes).

Lost Gold: Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands

The first ever book about the birds of this subantarctic island group

The Māori Meeting House: Introducing the Whare Whakairo

An accessible, illustrated guide to the history, artistry and cultural significance of the whare whakairo or Māori meeting house.

Māui’s Taonga Tales: A Treasury of Stories from Aotearoa and the Pacific

Join Māui as he shares stories for tamariki based on taonga from the Te Papa collection

The New Photography: New Zealand's First-Generation Contemporary Photographers

New Zealand’s photographer pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s.

The New Zealand Art Activity Book: 100+ Ideas for Creative Kids

Forget old-fashioned colouring books! Let the world of New Zealand art unleash your children’s imaginations in The NZ Art Activity Book: 100+ Ideas for Creative Kids.

New Zealand Art: From Cook to Contemporary

This stunning book, New Zealand Art: From Cook to Contemporary, uses colour reproductions and essays from New Zealand’s top curators to take the reader on a lively tour of Te Papa’s best-loved artworks.

New Zealand Fashion Design

New Zealand Fashion Design is a big, beautifully designed book profiling 25 top New Zealand fashion designers from the past 30 years. It is lavishly illustrated with over 500 stunning photographs, featuring insights into the designers’ own archives and private collections.

New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History

New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History is the first comprehensive, illustrated, and locally authored New Zealand film history, celebrating over 100 years of our film industry.

New Zealand Photography Collected

From the sublime to the surreal, the familiar to the forgotten and the 1850s to the present – see New Zealand photography like never before in this unique visual history.

New Zealand Seaweeds: An Illustrated Guide

New Zealand Seaweeds is the first photographic identification guide to New Zealand’s unique marine algae, by the country’s pre-eminent seaweed expert Wendy Nelson.

Pacific Art in Detail

This beautiful book, Pacific Art in Detail, takes a fresh look at the wealth of art from the Pacific – from simple to ornate, domestic to sacred, traditional to contemporary.

Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific Dimension of Contemporary New Zealand Arts

Pacific Art Niu Sila is essential reading for all those interested in the contemporary arts of both New Zealand and the Pacific.

Pacific Encounters: Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860

Highly illustrated catalogue of hundreds of rare art and artefacts from all over the Pacific.

Peter McLeavey: The life and times of a New Zealand art dealer

From Montana award-winning author Jill Trevelyan comes the first biography of Peter McLeavey, the charismatic, pioneering art dealer who since the 1960s has shaped – even transformed – New Zealand art.

Pōhutukawa & Rātā: New Zealand’s Iron-hearted Trees

Winner in the Environment category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2006.

Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s

Real Modern tells a vibrant and varied story of real life in this compelling era through images and, above all, objects.

Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life

Rita Angus: An Artist's Life is the first biography of this significant and much-loved New Zealand artist

Rita Angus: Life & Vision (exhibition catalogue)

Rita Angus: Life & Vision is the accompanying catalogue to the Te Papa exhibition and which marks the centenary of Rita Angus’s birth.

Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa

The companion catalogue to the major Rita Angus show at Te Papa.

Sage tea: an autobiography

Sage tea: an autobiography is an intimate first-person portrayal of the early life of the New Zealand landscape artist Toss Woollaston.

Scenic Playground: The Story Behind New Zealand's Mountain Tourism

A magnificent illustrated history of New Zealand's mountain tourism industry

Speaking in Colour: Conversations with artists of Pacific Island heritage

Speaking in Colour is a breakthrough art book, in which ten artists of Pacific Island descent talk candidly about their lives and work.

Surrealist Art | He Toi Pohewa

The catalogue of the major 2021 Surrealism show at Te Papa

Taiāwhio: Conversations with Contemporary Māori Artists

Taiāwhio is a collection of fascinating profiles of more than 20 Māori artists working in various media.

Taiāwhio II : Contemporary Māori Artists, 18 New Conversations

Taiāwhio II: Conversations with Contemporary Māori Artists has proven invaluable to art lovers, students, teachers, and those with a passion for New Zealand art. This volume profiles a fresh range of contemporary Māori artists.

Taonga Māori: A Spiritual Journey Expressed Through Māori Art

A superb reminder of the treasures that were shown to national and international acclaim in the Te Māori exhibition 1983-87.

Taonga Māori in the British Museum

This highly illustrated book reveals the most extensive collection of Māori taonga (treasures) held outside of New Zealand – those in the British Museum.

Tatau: Samoan Tattoo, New Zealand Art, Global Culture

This powerful series of photographs documents the story of Samoan tattoo art, and the work of world-renowned and controversial tattoo artist Su’a Sulu’ape Paulo II.

Te Papa: Reinventing New Zealand's National Museum 1998–2018

Inside the iconic New Zealand museum that has benchmarked international best practice.

Te Papa: Your Essential Guide

This compact book full of beautiful images is the complete guide to, and memento of, your visit to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality

A companion book to the magnificent exhibition of the treasures from the tomb of the First Emperor of China.

Tivaivai: The Social Fabric of the Cook Islands

Beautifully illustrated and informative, this book gives the reader a unique insight into the tradition of tivaivai in the Cook Islands

Toi Ora: Ancestral Māori Treasures

From Te Papa’s collections comes an illuminating introduction to not only Māori art, but also Māori life, culture and beliefs.

Toss Woollaston: A Life in Letters

The revealing letters of a great New Zealand landscape artist – riveting to read and generously illustrated.

The Wedding Dress: 300 Years of Bridal Fashions

A spectacular look at the history and traditions of the wedding dress. This book is an excellent accompaniment to Te Papa's exhibition, Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Dresses from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Whales and Dolphins of Aotearoa New Zealand

For centuries whales and dolphins have captured our imaginations. We have revered and mythologised them, hunted them to the brink of extinction and passionately protected them. But how much do we really know?